CAPG's Blog 

Source: The Bulletin

Sisters of Mercy, Catholic Encyclopedia

Sisters of Mercy have been serving in North Carolina close on to ninety years
1951, The Bulletin.
Belmont, NC.

In 1862, an urgent appeal was made to the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Charleston, SC., to rush to the assistance of the city of Wilmington, NC, which was stricken with an epidemy of yellow fever. Father Thomas Murphy, the pastor, and at one time the only priest in North Carolina, was himself a victim of the plague.
As the result of their work of mercy and charity the Sisters, endeared themselves to the people of Wilmington, and were bade farewell with reluctance when they returned to their home in Charleston.
At the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1866, the Vicariate Apostolic of North Carolina, was erected. Father James Gibbons, of Baltimore, who later became Cardinal Gibbons, was appointed Vicar Apostolic. Upon his arrival in Wilmington, he found an impoverished South, its mills and factories closed, its farms laid waste, and its people disheartened. Race riots were of frequent occurrence. In fact, on the very night of his arrival there was a torchlight procession of black people through the streets.
Father Gibbons saw the urgent need for Catholic schools and requested Sisters from the community at Charleston. Three Sisters were sent to establish the new mission. People gathered in crowds on street corners to gaze in amazement at the Sisters and their religious habits.
Immediately upon their arrival the three Sisters began the work of instructing children and of visiting patients in the local hospital. Money was needed for the care and relief of charity patients. The Mayor of Wilmington, Silas Martin, having been approached in order to obtain assistance, gave the Sisters a sum each week to be used for the need of the poor.
The fist postulant to be received into the young community, and also the first to die, was Miss Margaret Price, a sister of the famed "Tar-Heel Apostle," Father Frederick Price, co-founder of Maryknoll.
In 1872, the Wilmington community became a foundation separate from the Charleston House. In the same year, Bishop Gibbons became Bishop of Richmond, and although his visits to his "children in Wilmington" were infrequent, he sent them many letters of encouragement and continued his financial assistance. In one letter he wrote: "Though my calls are numerous and means not colossal, I can never forget the cherished home, my own creation, whose children prosecute the good work after their father was snatched from  them."
When the Sisters planned to establish their first branch house in Western North Carolina, Bishop Gibbons was dubious about the venture, but consented because he felt that it would give the Sisters an opportunity to get away from the swampy lowland in which they were then located. To pay for the equipment in this new school at Hickory, the Sisters saved by using one fire and one lamp at night. Finally, this house was closed because of the impossibility of securing a priest to minister to the community.
Other places were considered as sites for a permanent foundation, but for various reasons were not found suitable. In 1891, Bishop Leo Haid, Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery at Belmont, NC, and Bishop of North Carolina, advised the Sisters that there was a valuable piece of property for sale between the monastery and the city of Belmont. After much negotiating, the property was purchased and a frame building was erected.
When the Sisters arrived at their new home late on summer afternoon, they found to their dismay that as yet no doors had been hung in the building. In the midst of their discussion about preparation for the coming night, several Monks from the monastery arrived with supper for them. The Benedictines continued to supply food for the Sisters for several days.
 Up to this time, the Sisters still retained the habit of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy of Charleston. In 1893, they adopted the habit of the Mother McAuley Sisters of Mercy but they did not become officially affiliated with that Order until 1812.
At home, the community has grown from the original three Sisters in 1869 to one hundred and thirty-three Sisters in 1951. The Sisters of Mercy, as is characteristic of their labors, are engaged in caring for the poor, the sick and the ignorant in the State of North Carolina.
In their two large hospitals, Mercy Hospital, Charlotte, and St. Joseph's Hospital, Asheville, hundreds of charity patients have been given the same care and consideration as provided for paying patients. A training school for nurses is operated in connection with Mercy Hospital in Charlotte. The Sisters also visit the poor and sick in their homes. The needy of Charlotte will long remember the charity of Sister Benedict, who distributed food and clothing among them.
St. Leo's Military School for small boys, located near the Mother-house in Belmont, fills a great need in this area since there is no other Catholic boarding school for young boys between Northern Virginia and Georgia.
Besides teaching on all levels of education from kindergarten  through junior college, the Sisters travel miles on Saturdays and Sundays to do catechetical work. They conduct vacation schools during the summer months.
Numerous requests are received from pastors asking that Sisters be sent for their schools. Many of these requests have to be refused because of the lack of a sufficient number of Sisters. Vocations are increasing in number, it is true, but not in numbers to supply the demand. The hospitals plead, " We need more Sister nurses," the schools urge, " Mother, send us more teaching Sisters." The field is ripe to the harvest, but more laborers are needed.
The present Superior of the Sisters of Mercy of Belmont is Reverend Mother M. Immaculate, a native of Savannah, Ga. Her Council is composed of Mother M. Juliana, Mother Assistant; Mother M. Benignus, Burser, and Mother M. John, Mistress of Novices.
Gradually the Sisters were able to open schools in nearby town, and soon hospitals were established. After their gallant services in nursing flu patients in the government hospital in Wilmington in 1918, each Sister received a letter from the government stating: " You risked your life as truly as any soldier on the field of battle."
An orphanage for girls was erected on the grounds of the Mother-house at Belmont. Father Price founded an orphanage for boys near Raleigh. The first children admitted were two boys found starving on the streets of Raleigh, and a third boy sent to the Sisters by the courts.
In 1946, the Belmont Community undertook its first foreign mission at the request of the Bishop of Guam. Three Sisters, left for the South Pacific in the fall of that year to open a native novitiate and a school. Today there are a Guam forty-five Sisters, who have four missions, two schools, and do catechetical work.

Source: The Bulletin

"Envy is a sadness which we feel on account of the good that happens to our neighbor.

Envy my children, follows pride; whoever is envious is proud. See, envy comes to us from Hell; the devils having sinned through pride, sinned also through envy, envying our glory, our happiness. Why do we envy the happiness and the goods of others? Because we are proud; we should like to be the sole possessors of talents, riches, of the esteem and love of all the world! We hate our equals, because they are our equals; our inferiors, from the fear that they may equal us; our superiors, because they are above us. In the same way, my children, that the devil after his fall felt, and still feels, extreme anger at seeing us the heirs of the glory of the good God, so the envious man feels sadness at seeing the spiritual and temporal prosperity of his neighbor.

We walk, my children, in the footsteps of the devil; like him, we are vexed at good, and rejoice at evil. If our neighbor loses anything, if his affairs go wrong, if he is humbled, if he is unfortunate, we are joyful. . . we triumph! The devil, too, is full of joy and triumph when we fall, when he can make us fall as low as himself. What does he gain by it? Nothing. Shall we be richer, because our neighbor is poorer? Shall we be greater, because he is less? Shall we be happier, because he is more unhappy? O my children! How much we are to be pitied for being like this! St. Cyprian said that other evils had limits, but that envy had none. In fact, my children, the envious man invents all sorts of wickedness; he has recourse to evil speaking, to calumny, to cunning, in order to blacken his neighbor; he repeats what he knows, and what he does not know he invents, he exaggerates. . . .

Through the envy of the devil, death entered into the world; and also through envy we kill our neighbor; by dint of malice, of falsehood, we make him lose his reputation, his place. . . . Good Christians, my children, do not do so; they envy no one; they love their neighbor; they rejoice at the good that happens to him, and they weep with him if any misfortune comes upon him. How happy should we be if we were good Christians.

Ah! my children, let us, then, be good Christians and we shall no more envy the good fortune of our neighbor; we shall never speak evil of him; we shall enjoy a sweet peace; our soul will be calm; we shall find paradise on earth."

Source: The Blessed Curé of Ars in His Catechetical Instructions, 1951

Prayer for Lent: O Lord who, for our sake, didst fast forty days and forty nights; give us grace to use such abstinence that, our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may worthily lament and acknowledge our wretchedness, and may obtain perfect remission and forgiveness of Thee, the God of all mercy, who livest and reignest with the Father and Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen

Saint Katharine Drexel, Holy Name Cathedral, Raleigh NC ©CAPG

Saint Katharine Drexel in North Carolina

Quotes from Saint Katharine Drexel:

• "The patient and humble endurance of the Cross - whatever nature it may be- is the highest work we have to do."
• "Ours is the Spirit of the Eucharist, the total gift of self."
• "The Eucharist is the never ending sacrifice. It is the Sacrament of Love, the supreme love, the act of love."
• "My sweetest Joy is to be in the presence of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament. I beg that when obliged to withdraw in body, I may leave my heart before the Holy Sacrament. How I would miss Our Lord if He were to be away from me by His presence in the Blessed Sacrament!"
  

"The opening chapter of the rule admirably defines this twofold purpose of the life of a Sister of the Blessed Sacrament: "The object of the Institute is the honor and service of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. The sisters admitted to this religious congregation, besides attending particularly to their own perfection, which is the principal end of all religious orders, shall, by an apostolate of prayer and work, zealously endeavor to procure through Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament living temples for His Divinity amongst the Indian and colored races. To attain this end the sisters admitted to this religious congregation shall consecrate themselves, body, soul and spirit, to the service of their Eucharistic Lord by their twofold apostolate, and feel convinced that even if they were to perform heroic acts of virtue, they would only be doing their duty; that is, they would be conducting themselves as it is meet and fitting for the honor of Him who has given Himself entirely to them." (...)

Devotion to Jesus in the Holy Sacrament is the great central devotion of the sisterhood. The rule says, "Jesus really present in the Holy Eucharist shall be the constant object of their affection. They shall often reflect, on the infinite charity displayed for us in that ever adorable Sacrament, and by frequent visits every day, pay assiduous court to their Heavenly Spouse on His throne of love, uniting their acts of adoration, prayers and thanksgiving, to those of the angels who continually attend Him in the tabernacle. In all their sufferings and anxieties, in all their fears, afflictions and temptations, they shall seek comfort and consolation at the foot of the altar. They shall endeavor to model themselves on the gentleness, humility, obedience and annihilation of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. The practical rule of their conduct should be, what does our Lord Jesus Christ want of me at this moment? In this action is there anything for His service, for His glory? What would our Lord do on such or such an occasion?" (...)

"The Feast of the Purification following witnessed the opening of "Holy Providence House." In an incredibly short time the building was filled to its utmost capacity-one hundred and fifty children. The majority are girls, whom the sisters keep until their twenty-first year. The boys, when they have reached the age of twelve, are transferred to industrial or trade schools. The girls receive a good common-school education, the larger ones spend one-half day in school work, the other half in domestic employment. Some take a course in scientific dressmaking; the steam laundry instructs others in all the details of fine laundry work; while the bakery and cooking classes afford instruction to an equally large number. The aim is to give the girls a good, solid English education, and a thorough knowledge of all the branches of domestic economy." American Ecclesiastical Review

"There may be an added obligation of voting on special issues or against persons who support them. For example, if a state attempted to put through a bill authorizing the appropriation of funds for birth prevention literature, methods, facilities, etc., then the citizen would be bound in conscience to oppose such a measure at the poll. If a candidate were known to advocate birth prevention, mercy killing, easy divorce laws, and the like and it were known that he would use his influence to push bills or legislation on such matters, then the citizen would be bound to vote against this candidate."

The whole point is that the citizen must be a man of principle and of intelligent action. The ordinary citizen alone is not powerful, but banded together with the rest of the people he helps to exert a combined force that rules the country. He must see what is right and do what is right, just as much at the polls as at Sunday Mass or at business. Indeed he may even have to sacrifice for the common good. Monsignor Ryan declares that at times the Catholic voter must disregard his economic interests for the sake of religious interests. "If any party were proposing and had the power to enact a law abolishing parochial schools," he cites as an example, "no amount of beneficent economic proposals would be an off-set. it would be the plain duty of the Catholic citizen to vote against the candidates of such a party." And this obviously holds in any danger of great harm to the Church of state." Catholic Principles on Voting, Rev. Fr. Titus Cranny S.A. 1952

"As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the principal focus of her interventions in the public arena is the protection and promotion of the dignity of the person, and she is thereby consciously drawing particular attention to principles which are not negotiable. Among these the following emerge clearly today:

• - protection of life in all its stages, from the first moment of conception until natural death;

• - recognition and promotion of the natural structure of the family - as a union between a man and a woman based on marriage - and its defence from attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different forms of union which in reality harm it and contribute to its destabilization, obscuring its particular character and its irreplaceable social role;
• - the protection of the right of parents to educate their children." Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI, 30 March 2006.

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"Saint Simplicius was the ornament of the Roman Clergy under Sts. Leo and Hilarius, and succeeded the latter in the pontificate in 468. He was raised by God to comfort and support his Church amidst the greatest storms. All the provinces of the Western Empire, out of Italy, were fallen into the hands of barbarians. The emperors for many years were rather shadows of power than sovereigns, and, in the eighth year of the pontificate of Simplicius, Rome itself fell a prey to foreigners. Italy, by oppression and the ravages of barbarians, was left almost a desert without inhabitants; and the imperial armies consisted chiefly of barbarians, hired under the name of auxiliaries. These soon saw that their masters were in their power. The Heruli demanded one third of the lands of Italy, and, upon refusal, chose for their leader Odoacer, one of the lowest extraction but a resolute and intrepid man, who was proclaimed king at Rome in 476. He put to death Orestes, who was regent of the empire for his son Augustulus, whom the senate had advanced to the imperial throne. Odoacer spared the life of Augustulus, appointed him a salary of six thousand pounds of gold, and permitted him to live at full liberty near Naples.

Pope Simplicius was wholly taken up in comforting and relieving the afflicted, and in sowing the seeds of the Catholic faith among the barbarians. The East gave his zeal no less employment and concern. Peter Cnapheus, a violent Eutychian, was made by the heretics Patriarch of Antioch ; and Peter Mongus, one of the most profligate men, that of Alexandria. Acacius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, received the sentence of St. Simplicius against Cnapheus, but supported Mongus against him and the Catholic Church, and was a notorious changeling, double-dealer, and artful hypocrite, who often made religion serve his own private ends. St. Simplicius at length discovered his artifices, and redoubled his zeal to maintain the Holy faith, which he saw betrayed on every side, list the patriarchal sees of Alexandria and Antioch were occupied by furious wolves, and there was not one Catholic king in the whole world. The emperor measured everything by his passions and human views. St. Simplicius, having sat fifteen years eleven months and six days, went to receive the reward of his labors in 483. He was buried in St. Peter's on the 2d of March."

Reflection.-" He that trusteth in God shall fare never the worse," saith the Wise Man in the Book of Ecclesiasticus.

Source: Lives of the Saints, with reflections for every day in the year.

Prayer for the Pope ( by Pope Leo XIII)

O Lord, we are the millions of believers, humbly kneeling at Thy feet and begging Thee to preserve, defend and save the Sovereign Pontiff for many years. He is the Father of the great fellowship of souls and our Father as well. On this day, as on every other day, he is praying for us also, and is offering unto Thee with holy fervor the sacred Victim of love and peace.

Wherefore, O Lord, turn Thyself toward us with eyes of pity; for we are now, as it were, forgetful of ourselves, and are praying above all for him. Do Thou unite our prayers with his and receive them into the bosom of Thine infinite mercy, as a sweet savor of active and fruitful charity, whereby the children are united in the Church to their Father.

All that he asks of Thee this day, we too ask it of Thee in unison with him. Whether he weeps or rejoices, whether he hopes or offers himself as a victim of charity for his people, we desire to be united with him; nay more, we desire that the cry of our hearts should be made one with his. Of Thy great mercy grant, O Lord, that not one of us may be far from his mind and his heart in the hour that he prays and offers unto Thee the Sacrifice of Thy blessed Son.

At the moment when our venerable High Priest, holding in His hands the very Body of Jesus Christ, shall say to the people over the Chalice of benediction these words: "The peace of the Lord be with you always, grant, O Lord, that Thy sweet peace may come down upon our hearts and upon all the nations with new and manifest power. Amen.

"Pride is an untrue opinion of ourselves, an untrue idea of what we are not.

The proud man is always disparaging himself, that people may praise him the more. The more the proud man lowers himself, the more he seeks to raise his miserable nothingness. He relates what he has done, and what he has not done; he feeds his imagination with what has been said in praise of him, and seeks by all means for more; he is never satisfied with praise. See, my children, if you only show some little displeasure against a man given up to self-love, he gets angry, and accuses you of ignorance or injustice towards him.

My children, we are in reality only what we are in the eyes of God, and nothing more. Is it not quite clear and evident that we are nothing, that we can do nothing, that we are very miserable? Can we lose sight of our sins, and cease to humble ourselves?

If we were to consider well what we are, humility would be easy to us, and the demon of pride would no longer have any room in our heart. See, our days are like grass; like the grass which now flourishes in the meadows, and will presently be withered; like an ear of corn which is fresh only for a moment, and is parched by the sun. In fact, my children, today we are full of life, full of health; and tomorrow, death will perhaps come to reap us and mow us down, as you reap your corn and mow your meadows... Whatever appears vigorous, whatever shines, whatever is beautiful, is of short duration... The glory of this world, youth, honors, riches, all pass away quickly, as quickly as the flower of grass, as the flower of the field... let us reflect that we shall one day be reduced to dust; ...that we shall be thrown into the fire like dry grass, if we do not fear the good God.

Good Christians know this very well, my children; therefore they do not occupy themselves with their body; they despise the affairs of this world; they consider only their soul and how to unite it to God.

Can we be proud in the face of the examples of lowliness, of humiliations, that our Lord has given us, and is still giving us every day? Jesus Christ came upon earth, became incarnate, was born poor, lived in poverty, died on a gibbet, between two thieves... He instituted an admirable Sacrament, in which He communicates Himself to us under the Eucharistic veil; and in this Sacrament He undergoes the most extraordinary humiliations. Residing continually in our tabernacles, He is deserted, misunderstood by ungrateful men; and yet He continues to love us, to serve us in the Sacrament of the Altar.

O my children! What an example of humiliation does the good Jesus give us!

Behold Him on the Cross to which our sins have fastened Him; Behold Him: He calls us and says to us, "Come to Me, and Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart."

How well the saints understood this invitation, my children! Therefore, they all sought humiliations and sufferings. After their example, then, let us not be afraid of being humbled and despised.

St. John of God, at the beginning of his conversion, counterfeited madness, ran about the streets, and was followed by the populace, who threw stones at him: he always came in covered with mud and with blood. He was shut up as a madman; the most violent remedies were employed to cure him of his pretended illness; and he bore it all in the spirit of penance, and in expiation of his past sins.

The good God, my children, does not require of us extraordinary things. He wills that we should be gentle, humble, and modest; then we shall always be pleasing to Him; we shall be like little children; and He will grant us the grace to come to Him and to enjoy the happiness of the saints."

Source: The Spirit of the Curé of Ars  by Abbé Monnin, p. 232, 1865

Prayer for Lent: O Lord who, for our sake, didst fast forty days and forty nights; give us grace to use such abstinence that, our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may worthily lament and acknowledge our wretchedness, and may obtain perfect remission and forgiveness of Thee, the God of all mercy, who livest and reignest with the Father and Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen

Saint David

"From his tender years, he gave great proofs of the fear and love of God, which increased in him as he grew up, together with a love of purity, and a diligent application to sacred literature: and such was the progress he made in virtue and learning, that he was judged worthy of being advanced to the priesthood. He exercised his talents in preaching the word of life, and propagating the kingdom of Christ among the Britons. He gained innumerable souls to God, by word and example. He also collected a great number of disciples, desirous to aspire to Christian perfection in a monastic life; in favour of whom he founded twelve religious houses, under a most excellent rule and institute.

"Saint David, son of Sant, Prince of Cardigan and of Non, was born in that country in the fifth century, and from his earliest years gave himself wholly to the service of God. He began his religious life under Saint Paulinus, a disciple of St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, who had been sent to Britain by Pope Saint Celestine to stop the ravages of the heresy of Pelagius, at that time abbot, as it is said, of Bangor. On the reappearance of that heresy, in the beginning of the sixth century, the bishops assembled at Brevi, and, unable to address the people that came to hear the word of truth, sent for St. David from his cell to preach to them. The Saint came, and it is related that, as he preached, the ground beneath his feet rose and became a hill, so that he was heard by an innumerable crowd. The heresy fell under the sword of the Spirit, and the Saint was elected Bishop of Caerleon on the resignation of St. Dubricius ; but he removed the see to Menevia, a lone and desert spot, where he might, with his monks, serve God away from the noise of the world. He founded twelve monasteries, and governed his Church according to the canons sanctioned in Rome. At last, when about eighty years of age, he laid himself down, knowing that his hour was come. As his agony closed, Our Lord stood before him in a vision, and the Saint cried out, “ Take me up with Thee,” and so gave up his soul on Tuesday, March 1, 561."

Saint Albinus, Bishop. Saint Albinus was of an ancient and noble family in Languidic Vannes, Brittany, and from his childhood was fervent in every exercise of piety. He ardently sighed after the happiness which a devout soul finds in being perfectly disengaged from all earthly things. Having embraced the monastic state at Tintillant, near Angers, he shone a perfect model of virtue, living as if in all things he had been without any will of his own; and his soul seemed so perfectly governed by the spirit of Christ as to live only for Him. At the age of thirty-five years he was chosen abbot, in 504, and twenty-five years afterwards Bishop of Angers. He everywhere restored discipline, being inflamed with a holy zeal for the honor of God. His dignity seemed to make no alteration either in his mortification or in the constant recollection of his soul. Honored by all the world, even by kings, he was never affected with vanity. Powerful in works and miracles, he looked upon himself as the most unworthy and most unprofitable among the servants of God, and had no other ambition than to appear such in the eyes of others as he was in those of his own humility. In the third Council of Orleans, in 538, he procured the thirtieth canon of the Council of Epaone to be revived, by which those are declared excommunicated who presume to contract incestuous marriages in the first or second degree of consanguinity or affinity. He died on the 1st of March, in 549.

Reflection.— With whatever virtues a man may be endowed, he will discover, if he considers himself attentively, a sufficient depth of misery to afford cause for deep humility; but Jesus Christ says, “ He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Source: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, 1894